I don't know if there is more than one band named Dawn (I'll just assume there is), but I'm referring to the Swedish melodic black metal band. For those of you who like this band, which album do you prefer? I've listened to 'Nær sólen gar niþer for evogher' a couple more times than I have 'Slaughtersun', but to be honest, I find 'Slaughtersun' to be the harder-hitting, superior album. Really, really strong stuff, both records.

Your thoughts?

I own Slaughtersun. I think it's quite nice, I don't really play it all that often since it's more on the melodic side than I normally listen to but when I do it's always pretty killer and hits the spot right. hell I might even just pull it out today since you made meantion of it. I don't have Naer but maybe I'll seek out a copy of that as well

I've got the first album and think it's quite good, but not the masterpiece some make it out to be.

Yes.

I have everything they've done except the 2 demo tapes from 92 and 93. Can't really pick a favourite.

imho slaughtersun or far away from the sun are the best melodic black metal albums of all time.

Great band, can't find both the debut and Slaughtersun anywhere. That's a pity.

they aren't very much on discogs, and the CM reissues are easy to find.

Yup, Slaughtersun is essentially the pinnacle of its niche.

It's okay, definitely has more style than its comparable albums such as the Sacramentum debut or the Unanimated sophomore. The melodicism still gets overbearing frequently, though.

I was just starting to get into melodic black metal when I sat for a five hour tattoo session and the artist put Slaughtersun on repeat. Hearing it in that setting for the first time was absolutely fucking mindblowing and I consider them masters of the sound. As a whole the album is a bit long, but contains some of my favorite riffs and melodies in history. They've had rumblings about a new album for five years now, so it'll be interesting to see what happens, or how Century Media fucks it up.

Let's not forget the Sorgh pa svarte vingar fløgh EP.. that's the one I've been spinning the most lately, it's a nice balance of the more brutal style of Slaughtersun but without the songs all being 10 minutes long.

i just got into them this year, picked up slaughtersun and it's great. took me 5 or 6 listens to take it all in

Dawn is active? I used to listen to them a lot when their albums were still fairly new, probably haven't listened to them since the early 2000s though. I'll have to get them back onto my player for a change.

More like "Active". There was a lot of noise when they started messing around again, got signed to CM, and put out those re-issues. I swear they said a new one would be ready by 2015, so who knows. Now they seem to just be selling shit on Facebook.

Awesome band. Many thanks to Century Media for reissuing their discography thus saving me having to apply for a bank loan in order to get the originals. Still not sure how i overlooked them back in day.
I have doubts as to them ever completing/releasing a new album though.

what do you mean with this i would say that both albums are and definitely were when they released quite unique. Do you think those 2 albums are too melodic or something?

just got a newsletter from no colours today, who have both available for 11 EUR each. just as an example.

It's the kind of melodies, always felt that Slaughtersun had a little more of a romantic "heavy metal fantasy film soundtrack" feel to their melodies and a little less of an "Adrian Smith and Dave Murray lead duelling on stage" feel.

Wonder how much my lot was worth before the reissues. I own the black LPs now too.

This is from youtube comments

A collection of that kind is worth quite a bit even with the reissues coming out. Never knew the Slaughtersun promo had a completely different artwork, cool!

They were one of those bands that were quite highly recarded by those who knew them but never seemed to reach further than their close audience. Very enjoyable material, definitely worth a reissue. I picked up the demo cd as everything else I already had on the Slaughtersun double disc edition.



Thanks for sharing! Looks like all is not lost yet...

Geez and I thought I was a hoarder for owning two copies of Slaughtersun

Here's hoping for a new album soon(ish) then. I recall an interview form a year or two ago where Frederik said the new material would have more blasts as well as more acoustic guitars and keys and the songs weren't quite as lengthy. Sounds interesting.

On one hand I'm glad CM did the reissues. On the other hand they compressed the shit out of them so eventually I'll still need to hunt down an old Necropolis CD of the debut album. Not the worst mastering job I've heard but far from ideal.

There's hardly any difference on Slaughtersun (actually the 2-disc version seems to have the highest DR of the three versions) and still quite a bit of headroom on the EP according to the DR database. Looks like they definitely smashed the fuck out of the Naer Solen.. though.

They were remastered by Dan Swanö too, you'd think he would know better. He did a fine job of remastering Far Away From The Sun though.

Has there ever been an explanation given for the overuse of compression/brickwalling by the actual people that do it or request it, i.e.: bands, labels, and engineers? Most of the commentary I've heard or seen has been from either us the consumers or the engineers who are known for not brickwalling (e.g.: Steves Hoffman and Albini).

It will never make sense to me that you can take these technological applications and use them in an all or nothing fashion. Surely there is a middle ground between "original thin and weak 1982 production" and "unlistenable torrent of noise."

I have to pitch in to clarify something. Dawn's debut album was never actually mastered, much like Katatonia's Brave Murder Day, hence why the CM reissue is so much louder and crispier since they actually mastered the album for that release. I still prefer my 2CD Necropolis copy though, but then again I also have the original Avantgarde BMD edition.

New Dawn would be excellent, though it's one of those cases where I'll always wait for it to happen before getting excited about it. At least I can spin some Mare Cognitum in the meantime to scratch the itch.

Mastering is client-driven work and like all client driven work the client is always right. I don't know what happened in this case but it could've been done better. A lot better. Many times bands or labels feel pressure to be competitive with whatever is going on currently. So if all the hot new bands on Relapse or some other big label are doing DR5 mastering or worse, then they will too.

It's also easy to be fooled by "louder is better". Back in the late 90s when the Slayer catalog was remastered, I bought those and thought they were great. Over time I grew to hate them and knew I had made the wrong decision by getting rid of my old copies. I later re-bought those old copies and they sound much better to me now.

I did not know that, having never heard the original. I just know that the CM remaster is a typical loudness war job and not good. It's a shame they couldn't have had a more even handed, dynamic mastering for the reissue. It would've brought out the instruments more rather than squashing everything to shit.

I'd be interested in new material.

The original sounds quite thin and powerless, especially the drums. Shame there's no decent mastering job, unlike Brave Murder Day which isn't completely smashed on the 2006 mastered reissue.

Yeah it's really thin sounding indeed, but it's kind of warm still. I've heard its remaster a few times and it kind of loses that warmth even though it sounds more in line with Slaughtersun.

Never knew that; explains why the debut sounds so damn quiet on my 2-cd version.

Long time fan of Dawn here, although it took me several years to be able to appreciate Slaughtersun as much as it deserves; the Abyss production and similarity to then-booming Marduk (as I perceived it back then) prevented me from enjoying it. Naer solen..., on the other hand, clicked with me instantly (small wonder considering such greatness as "Svarte skiner solen").
The reason I'm posting here is to announce that the new Grafvitnir album "Obeisance to a witch moon" is released in a few days from now; an album that resembles Dawn's sophomore a lot while having the most caustic vocalist I've heard in a long time, really good stuff. Listen to them on youtube, their level of melodicism is indeed up there with Dawn - a fame not too many bands can rightfully claim.

I don't have any problem with the remaster (or 1st master, in this case) of Nær sólen gar niþer for evogher from 2014. In fact, I think it's a massive improvement. I was just thankful they finally got it properly mastered since the original always sounded pretty thin and had no bottom end.

I just compared both versions on Youtube and I don't notice the 2014 master being overly loud in comparison to the original. I don't even notice any difference in the loudness of either recording. The 2014 master just sounds fuller and the bass is much more pronounced.

Nah, I own the Necropolis 2CD version and when the remastered version came out I downloaded a 320k rip to hear how it sounded like. Fuller yes, and like I said above more in line with how Slaughtersun sounds, but also way louder which is understandable.

First heard Slaughtersun back around 2000/2001 when I was discovering all these foreign metal bands. Very very good band.

If that's your thing then you may want to dig up the first two Cirith Gorgor albums if you don't know them... that's another band that's up with there with Dawn and Naglfar for balancing epic melody with extreme rhythmic violence and acid-spewing vocals.

I may need to look into that Cirith Gorgor as well. I enjoy a good deal of swededeath and melodic black metal, so Dawn sits quite nicely with me. The debut is solid, but Slaughtersun is somewhat better in my eyes. It'll be interesting to hear what they can crank out after all these years and what they'll add to their sound.

I've got all the CM reissues. My favorite is probably their debut LP. Slaughtersun is good, but a bit too long and repetitive in my opinion. The demo compilation is a gem as well; Dawn was an excellent death metal band!